Court hears Ondo ACN’s appeal today

The Court of Appeal sitting in Akure will today hear the appeal filed by the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and its candidate in last October’s governorship election in Ondo State, Mr. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN) challenging the judgment of the Election Petition Tribunal.

The party is praying the court to set aside the judgment of the Justice Andova Kaka’n-led Tribunal, which declared Dr. Olusegun Mimiko of the Labour Party (LP) winner of election.

The briefs by both parties will be adopted today.

ACN is alleging that the tribunal caused a miscarriage of justice when it rejected its expert’s evidence, which were earlier admitted by the tribunal.

It said the tribunal failed to evaluate the evidence of its 41 witnesses, whose evidence were unchallenged by the respondents, particularly the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and LP, which did not call any witness.

ACN said even though its evidence of irregularities and non-accreditation of voters were corroborated on cross-examination by Mimiko’s 14 witnesses, the tribunal ruled that it lacked sufficient evidence to cancel the election.

It said despite the tribunal’s “finding of fact” that there were injection of strange names into the 2012 voter’s register used by INEC, it refused to void the register and declined jurisdiction to adjudicate on the matter.

The party said Section 131(5) of the Electoral Act, which was heavily relied on by the tribunal to decline jurisdiction, does not exist.

It alleged that the judgment was full of inconsistencies, saying at one length, the tribunal ruled that the 118 documentary evidence tendered by ACN was demonstrated before the tribunal, and in another part, ruled that they were not demonstrated but dumped on the tribunal, thus appropriating and reprobating its judgment.

ACN and Akeredolu are urging the Court of Appeal to order a fresh election “since the respondents failed to defend the allegations”.

The first respondent, Mimiko, is challenging the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal to hear the ACN’s appeal.

He said some of the grounds of appeal are argumentative, repetitive and “sometimes without particulars”.

Mimiko is praying the Court of Appeal to strike out the ACN’s Appeal. LP and INEC, who are co-respondents, have filed their briefs.